Brief Report: The Effectiveness of Hugging a Huggable Device Before Having a Conversation with an Unfamiliar Person for Autism Spectrum Disorders

Sensory overresponsivity (SOR) emerges before anxiety and positively predicts subsequent increasing levels of anxiety in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Sensory seeking behavior occurs as compensation for SOR, and individuals may seek sensory input in one sensory domain to compensate for SOR. Tactile seeking behavior is sufficient to decrease social anxiety in communicating with unfamiliar people. We assessed the effectiveness of hugging a huggable device before a conversation for reducing the psychological stress associated with speaking to an unfamiliar person or robot. Our analysis showed a significant effect, with Hugvie contributing to decreased stress for both interlocutors. Thus, this study demonstrated the efficacy of hugging it before conversation, which emphasizes the importance of tactile seeking for individuals with ASD.

Timing is everything: Early and late neural measures of auditory habituation and discrimination in autism and their relationship to autistic traits and sensory overresponsivity

BackgroundSensory differences are included in the DSM-5 criteria of autism for the first time, yet it is unclear how sensory behaviors are related to neural indicators of perception. We sought to disentangle this complex relationship by studying early brain signatures of perception using event-related potentials (ERPs) and examining their relationship to sensory overresponsivity and autistic traits.MethodsThirteen autistic children and 13 Typically Developing (TD) children matched on chronological age and nonverbal IQ participated in a passive oddball task, in which P1 habituation and P1 and MMN discrimination were evoked by pure tones. ERPs were compared between groups, and correlations were conducted between ERPs and autistic traits and sensory features.ResultsAutistic children had marginally enhanced neural discrimination and reduced habituation to auditory stimuli compared to the TD group. Better P1 and MMN discrimination and lower P1 habituation corresponded with more autistic traits. Further, the MMN component, but not P1 components, mapped on to sensory overresponsivity.LimitationsStimuli in the oddball paradigm were not counterbalanced in their presentation as standards or deviants, and participants were not directly asked about their reactions to the auditory stimuli, which would be advantageous in determining whether appraisal of stimuli moderates neural response. The sample size is small and warrants replication.ConclusionsSignificant correlations between auditory ERP components and autistic traits, even when group differences were not present, suggests benefits to taking a more dimensional approach to autism than using strictly categorical methods. Our findings highlight the significance of temporal and contextual factors in neural information processing as it relates to autistic traits and sensory behaviors.